There has always been a market for effective and safe cleaning products. Of late, however, the definition of “safe” has broadened to include considerations not just of immediate, localized toxicity, but also of the dangers posed by long-term use and exposure of cleaning products to individuals and the environment. For example, the cleaning benefits of phosphates are now seen as outweighed by their environmental costs, and they are now banned in a number of states. Thus, there is an increasing emphasis on and desire for environmentally friendly cleaning agents.
Among such agents are Hypochlorous Acid (HClO) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) solutions, particularly effective as a sanitizer and degreaser, respectively. The beneficial and environmentally benign properties of these compounds have been known for a long time, and an effective way of producing these compounds by electrolyzing a brine solution and passing it through an appropriate ion transfer membrane has been know for decades.
Unfortunately, existing processes and apparatuses for producing these compounds have been large and energy-intensive. They have also been potentially wasteful, producing both compounds at once, and thus producing a potentially wasted excess of one when only the other is desired.
This invention addresses these shortcomings with a process and apparatus that is compact enough for home use, has extremely low energy consumption and can produce a desired amount of just one of the compounds at a time.